Pubdate: Tue, 09 May 2006
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Craig Brunanski
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Note: Craig Brunanski lives in Vancouver.

WAR ON DRUGS AN ATTACK ON FREEDOM

I have a daughter on heroin. The only reason Alison is alive at the 
age of 32 is that her parents care about her, shelter her and love 
her even as she lies and steals our money.

But it's not drugs that threaten everything we hold dear. It is a 
paternalistic society that deems her an infant, incapable of choosing 
between right and wrong.

Let's face it, we are a society of infants. A delusional social order 
vying to exert control over an ignorant population. Like the monkey 
who covers its eyes, we refuse to recognize evil for what it really is -- fear.

The war on drugs is about fear --the fear of losing control, of 
plummeting into chaos and ultimate annihilation. We are not facing 
the truth -- about war on religion, sex or drugs.

Ask yourself, do you truly believe that an amnesty in the drug war 
would thrust you and yours into a hideous, back-alley world of 
zombie-like addicts, who to get their fix would obliterate everything 
you have -- your property, your possessions, the health and safety of 
your children?

Would you rather pretend that drugs are an insidious short-cut to an 
otherwise perfect world?

Do you want to continue this charade until we are all living in 
Pleasantville, Stepford, or some such utopia, clean and sober to the end?

The war on drugs is a war pitting the powerfully blind against the 
most vulnerable. It is an attack against the only ideal worth 
fighting for -- freedom.

My vote went to the real Jim Green in last Vancouver mayoral 
election. But Mayor Sam Sullivan's stance on drugs has my blessing.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman